Thinking About Love, Justice, and Education Through Grassroots Postmodernism, Deschooling, and Nonviolent Movements: Gandhi and Illich on Social and Educational Improvement

• In Event: Separation of School and (Corporate) State? Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Love, Justice, and Education

Abstract

Madhu Suri Prakash offers two interrelated perspectives, one from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and his non-violent theory-practice that spawned liberation of India from British colonialism, and the other from Ivan Illich whose proposals on de-schooling society have spurred world-wide interest for more than forty years. Though different in certain ways, it can be argued that both Gandhi and Illich offer exemplary ideas and work for grassroots alternatives to educational domination. Such alternatives are powerful instances of curriculum outside of school (Schubert, 2010b). Madhu Suri Prakash will point to progressivism and postmodernism in grassroots cultural, social, and educational projects (Prakash & Esteva, 1998; Esteva & Prakash, 1998) in Mexico, India, and elsewhere that seek justice through education by escaping traditional, colonial, and authoritarian domination of students through being infused with loving relationships in practical-political struggle and collaborative joy. While it may seem unnecessary to ask, it can still illuminate the meaning of public education to explore how the de-schooling of Ivan Illich (1970) and the social movements of Gandhi relate to so-called “education” by the corporate state. How do publics emerge who cultivate curricula to educate themselves in the midst of and away from colonization and oppression?

Author

• Madhu Suri Suri Prakash, The Pennsylvania State University